Taking a chance on Chance: or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the proposed M6 open burn at Camp Minden

All you folks up in north Louisiana who have been burning up Facebook over that proposed open burn of the 15 million pounds of M6 propellant at Camp Minden need to relax.

All of you who have been in contact with Erin Brockovich in an effort to solicit advice on stopping the burn should just cool your jets.

All of you alarmist who have been saying serious health issues could result from the burn ought to go back to whatever your day job is.

And as for north Louisiana’s congressional delegation, you have your 2016 re-election to think about so perhaps you would be wise to start calling campaign contributors and stop worrying about such things as environmental toxins.

After all, as of today (Jan. 12), Chance McNeely is on the job—until next September anyway—as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Office of Environmental Compliance at a cool $102,000—a 36 percent bump from his $65,000-a-year salary in the governor’s office.

Not bad for a 26-year-old with virtually zero experience—especially considering how rank and file state employees have gone without pay raises for five years now.

The title alone should scare the bejeezus out of anyone who might endanger the health of residents by the open burning of 15 million pounds of ammunition propellant. I mean, it’s not like they’re spraying Agent Orange on the peach trees in Ruston.

Chance is a 2010 graduate of LSU (B.S. in agricultural business), which gives him four full years of experience in the real world. What more could we ask of someone in charge of compliance with environmental regulations?

Why, just look at his impressive curriculum vitae:

He worked for the U.S. House of Representatives from August 2010 to September 2010 (that’s an entire month, folks!);

He worked from September 2010 to May 2011 (nine months—almost enough time to give him tenure) as a program assistant (whatever that title entails) for the NRA (speaking of propellants);

He then returned to the U.S. House of Representatives as a legislative assistant in May of 2011 and remained there almost three years (that’s two years longer than Vance McAllister served the residents of Louisiana’s 5th District in Congress);

Since last March, he has served as a “policy advisor” for Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office. We’re somewhat in the dark as to what type advice an agricultural business major with four years’ experience may have provided Jindal, who has about as much knowledge of agriculture as he does of constructing $250 million wash ‘n’ wear berms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Office of Environmental Compliance is charged with conducting inspections to ensure facilities are complying with terms of their permits, responding to complaints, evaluating of air and water conditions statewide, underground storage tank regulations and enforcement.

As DEQ liaison for the governor’s office, McNeely, 26, is said to have helped with air quality issues, landfill matters and the Explo Systems explosive issues near Minden. explo-la-4-14-site-removal-action

Well, that’s certainly a comfort. After all, Jindal was only a year older than that when Gov. Mike Foster appointed him to head the Department of Health and Hospitals.

And like Jindal, McNeely doesn’t seem destined to remain in one place long. Sources tell LouisianaVoice he plans to enroll in law school in September.

“He was completely my choice,” said DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch of McNeely’s hiring. “He has been our policy adviser at DEQ on a number of matters. He was the first who came to my head.”

Hatch may have been more accurate to say she was told by Jindal that McNeely was her choice.

It will certainly be interesting to watch McNeely’s performance in the brewing controversy in Minden. However it plays out, it won’t be pretty.

The M6 was abandoned on site after the bankruptcy of Explo Systems in 2013. A year earlier, in October 2012, one of Explo’s bunkers exploded, rattling homes and shattering windows four miles away and creating a 7,000-foot mushroom cloud.

The EPA has issued assurances that a controlled open burn is inexpensive and safe, with little environmental impact.

Others disagree.

“Our Louisiana politicians have allowed our beautiful state to become a dumping ground for toxic waste,” said retired Gen. Russel Honoré, leader of the Louisiana Green Army. “Our elected officials have allowed Bayou Corne, Grand Bayou, Mossville, and other communities to be polluted by their out-of-state political donors.

“The EPA-sanctioned open burn at Camp Minden without a doubt puts the health and safety of communities at risk and would not be allowed in California or Massachusetts. The good people of Louisiana deserve no less. The GreenARMY supports the citizens’ demand for accountability and their demand for no open burn at Camp Minden.”

Despite pending EPA approval of the burn, LSU-S organic chemistry professor Brian Salvatore said the EPA’s test burn was only to determine how the material burns and not the by-products in the smoke.

Salvatore said he posed the question of how much uncombusted dinitrotoluene (DNT, one of four chemicals contained in M6) escaped with the burn but was told the heat was too intense for monitoring. DNT causes cancer, he said. “It’s known as a definite carcinogen.

Other chemicals, he said, can cause birth defects and can trigger issues for those suffering from asthma. “All of these things are associated with these chemicals,” he said. “And they will happen.”

He said munitions similar to M6 were burned in Merrimac, Wisconsin in the 1970s and the chemicals leached into the area’s groundwater. He said it took years for symptoms to manifest themselves but officials are now seeing declining health among residents.

Citizens for Safe Water around Badger, an organization based in Merrimac, has been in contact with local opponents of the Minden burn.

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has even gotten on board via Facebook. In a message to one Minden area resident, she said, “Change, no matter what it is, starts with you, but sometimes finding the resources for you to enable change can be difficult. It’s about creating awareness of the issues that we all should be concerned about.”

But not to worry. In Washington, the House has passed a bill that effectively prevents scientists who are peer-reviewed experts in their field from providing advice to the EPA.

SAB provides scientific advice to the EPA administrator but the Stewart resolution stipulates that board members “may not participate in advisory activities that directly or indirectly involve review or evaluation of their own work.”

Said another way, a scientist who has published a peer-reviewed paper on a particular topic, say open burning of M6, will not be able to advise the EPA on the findings contained in his or her paper. This means the very scientists who are most knowledgeable about a subject will not be allowed to discuss it.

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19 Responses

Some things just amaze me. Like putting a 26-year-old in charge of something so important to our lives. I believe this young man is another wanna be Jindal idol who wants to be in politics via lawyering instead of business like the master himself, i.e. Jindal. Who is gonna protect our air quality, drinking water and our environment. Surely not jindal nor any of his appointees? They are too busy trying to reach their political goals of power and money. Where are the experienced individuals who have guarded our environment and have the expertise that we need? Surely they aren’t dead or left Louisiana yet. We need them badly to step up and say something. I wish I knew who they are and where to find them. Wonder if they could be working at DEQ for at least the last 20 years instead of the past few months? Jindal could have dug a little deeper and there are probably plenty to choose from I am sure without choosing the first one to come to mind.

A degree in Ag Business in 2010 meant that the individual most likely did not have the grade point average to enter the College of Business. Ag Business required a 2.2 (C) college of business required 3.0(B)

So, who is Dr. Strangelove in our Louisiana movie? At least that character was a scientist. I’m assuming McNeely would be General Buck Turgidson and Bobby Jindal President Merkin Muffley, but since the real star was Peter Sellers, maybe McNeely is Inspector Clouseau.

Sorry for the digression, and it is a shame none of this is funny. I think maybe the joke is on us.

Time is of the essence here…one report I saw, I believe from the EPA, says this stuff could start exploding by April 2015 due to degradation…and the Canadian government has banned the burning of this stuff whatsoever…Must be SOMETHING to all of this then, eh? …so “cooling our jets,” as you so mildly put it, is the last thing we should do! #stoptheburn

I wonder if as a result of the new legislation regarding disallowing seeking advice from qualified and knowledgeable experts applies to Doctors. Our new 5th District Congressman, an MD, would be barred from discussing anything medical-related with another doctor, med school professor, research scientist, and so forth. All patient care consultations would have to be done with the cafeteria employees. Otherwise, if the patient died and the doctor had consulted with another doctor, he/she would be liable for malpractice. Right?

Just don’t count on LADEQ for any help. In the fall of 2012, after Hurricane Isaac flooded Braithwaite, 137 railroad cars at Stolthaven overturned & damaged storage tanks holding chemicals including Benzene. For 10 days, LADEQ claimed that these contaminated flood waters were held in check by a chain-link fence! Once the photos & video got out to the public, TEN DAYS LATER- DEQ admitted that the spill had occurred & slapped Stolthaven – a multi-billion dollar corporation with a $10,000 fine. Wonder if they even had to pay that!!

Why do I have an uneasy feeling about the response to this situation? I guess its because its just another glaring example of “cronyism.” If it were not for Dr Brian Salvatore’s raising the red flag, after all he does have the qualifications to know the science [oops there’s that word again] he has graciously lent his time and expertise to this matter, which is likely to cause some discomfort to those who are supposed to be in charge of protecting us……Louisiana has a dismal history of protecting its citizens from industrial pollution, mainly because politicians have sold us out….we are collateral damage……after all, if you can’t see, feel, or smell it, it ain’t there, right? Thanks, Tom, for writing about this. There is a huge grassroots effort to address this environmental disaster and maybe a huge wake up call for all to get involved in changing the way Louisiana does business all across the state…..

Thanks for the informative article. But it is so distressing to continue to read of radicals who would deny science, logic, or even common humanity in the name of their political ideology. Can this practice take us into any future we would want to live in?

The comments about the environmental issues and concerns in Louisiana are all correct. Preparing future citizens to make informed and intelligent decisions on these issues requires an education that prepares them to do this; then maybe reading the 1000 page report could be attempted or researching online could be done. Our K-12 public schools are being destroyed by lack of funding, the ongoing arguments about science vs intelligent design and the current chaos caused by the horrible way Louisiana’s Dept. of Ed implemented common core. Science education, and social studies, have been ignored for years. Teachers collect box tops to help buy science materials. Starting in middle school and through high school, science teachers, those actually trying to teach science, struggle to cover a curriculum packed with unnecessary topics and little time to allow students time to gain the understanding of science they need to keep themselves and our state safe from becoming the toxic waste dumping ground it has. Louisiana’s BESE, except for Dr.Beebe and Carolyn Hill, have destroyed the current teaching and future of education about science in our state. Religious groups have far too much influence in course content because they believe that science and the Bible are in conflict and that evolution is myth! Compounding this is the constant cutting of funding for K-12 and higher education, removing vocational education from public high schools and funneling money from public schools to private religious ones! The attacks on a scientifically literate populous are a daily occurrence here. WHY???

This is the way the EPA “should” work according to the right-wingers, including our own David Vitter, who says if elected, he will keep his foot on the agency’s neck. The only reason I really believe that Vitter and other Republicans in the state are up in arms is because it’s an election year and the natives are restless. But this is the agency the Republicans have angled to have for years . . . sickening. When will this madness end?

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